Ahmadinejad: Iran to Unveil ‘Big New’ Nuclear Achievements ‘Within the Next Few Days’

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran will soon
unveil “big new” nuclear achievements, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
said Saturday while reiterating Tehran’s readiness to revive talks with
the West over the country’s controversial nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad spoke at a rally in Tehran
as tens of thousands of Iranians marked the 33rd anniversary of the
Islamic Revolution that toppled the pro-Western monarchy and brought
Islamic clerics to power.

Ahmadinejad did not elaborate on the
upcoming announcement but insisted Iran would never give up its uranium
enrichment, a process that makes material for reactors as well as
weapons.

The West suspects Iran’s nuclear
program is aimed at producing atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies,
insisting it’s geared for peaceful purposes only, such as energy
production.

Four rounds of U.N. sanctions and
recent tough financial penalties by the U.S. and the European Union have
failed to get Iran to halt aspects of its atomic work that could
provide a possible pathway to weapons production.

“Within the next few days the world
will witness the inauguration of several big new achievements in the
nuclear field,” Ahmadinejad told the crowd in Tehran’s famous Azadi, or
Freedom, square.

Iran has said it is forced to
manufacture nuclear fuel rods, which provide fuel for reactors, on its
own since international sanctions ban it from buying them on foreign
markets. In January, Iran said it had produced its first such fuel rod.

Apart from progress on the rods, the
upcoming announcement could pertain to Iran’s underground enrichment
facility at Fordo or upgraded centrifuges, which are expected to be
installed at the facility in the central town of Natanz. Iran has also
said it would inaugurate the Russian-built nuclear power plant in the
southern port of Bushehr in 2012.

Iran’s unchecked pursuit of the
nuclear program scuttled negotiations a year ago but Iranian officials
last month proposed a return to the talks with the five permanent U.N.
Security Council members plus Germany.

“Iran is ready for talks within the
framework of equality and justice,” Ahmadinejad repeated on said
Saturday but warned that Tehran “will never enter talks if enemies
behave arrogantly.”

In the past, Iran has angered Western
officials by appearing to buy time through opening talks and weighing
proposals even while pressing ahead with the nuclear program.

Washington recently levied new
penalties aimed at limiting Iran’s ability to sell oil, which accounts
for 80 percent of its foreign revenue, while the European Union adopted
its own toughest measures yet on Iran, including an oil embargo and
freeze of the country’s central bank assets.

Israel is worried Iran could be on the
brink of an atomic bomb and many Israeli officials believe sanctions
only give Tehran time to move its nuclear program underground, out of
reach of Israeli military strikes. The U.S. and its allies argue that
Israel should hold off on any military strike on Iranian nuclear
facilities to allow more time for sanctions to work.

Before Ahmadinejad spoke Saturday,
visiting Hamas prime minister from Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, also addressed
the crowd, congratulating Iranians on the 1979 anniversary and vowing
that his militant Palestinian group would never recognize Iran’s and
Hamas’ archenemy, Israel.

Also at the Tehran rally, Iran
displayed a real-size model of the U.S. drone RQ-170 Sentinel, captured
by Iran in December near the border with Afghanistan. Iran has touted
the drone’s capture as one of its successes against the West.

The state TV called the drone is a “symbol of power” of the Iranian armed forces “against the global arrogance” of the U.S.

The report broadcast footage of other
rallies around Iran, saying millions participated in the anniversary
celebrations, many under heavy snowfall.

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